Cash-trapped Ukraine moved a step closer Friday to avoiding a devastating default thanks to a new offer that would see its creditors accept a small debt write-off.

The proposal that sources said was submitted by Franklin Templeton and three other U.S. financial titans to Kiev this week is still far short of the bond value reduction sought by the war-torn former Soviet state.

The United States ordered additional sanctions related to Russia and Ukraine on Thursday, saying it aimed to fight evasion and align the U.S. effort closer to its international partners.

The fresh U.S. sanctions come after the European Union and Canada recently stepped up pressure on Russia to ensure it fully implements Ukraine peace accords reached in Minsk in February but regularly violated.

Ukraine on Thursday blacklisted a group of right-wing French lawmakers who ignored warnings from Paris and paid an unofficial but highly publicized visit to Russian-occupied Crimea.

The 10 lower and upper house members used their weekend stay to praise Russian President Vladimir Putin and the living standards of the economically-isolated Black Sea peninsula -- seized from Ukraine in the wake of last year's ouster of its Kremlin-backed president.

Ukraine's finance ministry warned Thursday it could declare a technical default in two months should its lenders fail to accept less stringent repayment terms and a possible partial debt write-off.

The war-shattered state's words of caution came on the eve of a crucial Washington meeting at which the International Monetary Fund is expected to back the release of a new payment that would keep Ukraine's $40-billion (37-billion-euro) global rescue package live.

Ukrainian pilot and lawmaker Nadiya Savchenko went on trial in Russia on Thursday in a politically charged case that could send tensions between Moscow and Kiev to a new high.

The 34-year-old helicopter navigator faces up to 25 years in prison for her alleged involvement in the killing of two Russian journalists in war-torn eastern Ukraine last year.

Four civilians were killed in intense shelling attacks between the Ukrainian army and pro-Russian rebels in the separatist east of the war-torn state, officials from both sides said Thursday.

"Two civilians were killed as a result of shelling in Dzerzhynsk," about 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of the rebels' de facto capital Donetsk, representative of the region's Kiev-appointed administration's health department told Agence France Presse.

Russia vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution on Wednesday that sought to set up a special tribunal to try those responsible for shooting down flight MH17 over Ukraine.

Eleven of the 15 members of the Security Council voted in favor of the resolution, which had been drafted by Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Ukraine.

Ukraine's security service on Wednesday announced the capture of a Russian army major who was allegedly delivering explosives to pro-Kremlin rebels in the separatist east.

Moscow denies any involvement in Ukraine's 15-month conflict and describes Russians caught in the war zone as "volunteers" who joined the fighting without any direct orders from the army.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Wednesday unveiled a monument to a Catholic Church leader derided by Moscow for initially welcoming Nazi soldiers during World War II.

Andriy Sheptytsky lead the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church for more than four decades and was always lionized by the nationalist west of the often fought-over east European state.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Wednesday made an "urgent" appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin not to veto a U.N. Security Council resolution to try those who shot down flight MH17 over Ukraine.

Rutte's office said he telephoned Putin, ahead of the vote in New York later Wednesday, to seek his backing for setting up an international tribunal to try the as-yet unidentified suspects behind the downing of the Malaysia Airlines jet that killed 298 people in July of last year.